The Birmingham Road, for all its charms, has never been the most architecturally elegant stretch of real estate in the Black Country, but on Friday July 11, 2003, it became a site transformed by the unveiling of the Jeff Astle Memorial Gates at the entrance to The Hawthorns’ East Stand. 

Following the tragic death of the King in January 2002, there was plenty of debate about how his life should be properly celebrated, with much discussion between supporters’ groups, the club and, most important, Jeff’s wife, Laraine, and the rest of the Astle family. 

At that point in time, physical memorials to former Albion heroes did not extend beyond the naming of suites and executive boxes within the stadium, but Jeff Astle’s passing clearly demanded something more. 

Given Astle’s relationship with the support, particularly as the King of the Brummie, that was the location where any tribute simply had to be. Installing a set of memorial gates was the conclusion, constructed along the Birmingham Road itself, next to the stand, running across the East Stand car park, marking the entrance way to the stadium and the main offices of the club. 

The project, funded by Smethwick Regeneration Partnership and Smethwick Town Team, alongside generous donations from the football club, Shareholders 4 Albion, Grorty Dick, the WBA Supporters Club and the Boing website, has become a real focal point at The Hawthorns, a place where many supporters meet up before and after games. 

Beyond that, the Gates have become a rallying point in good times and sad. When Cyrille Regis, Astle’s great successor in the number 9 shirt, passed away in 2018, the Gates were festooned with scarves, shirts, flowers and all manner of tributes to another fallen hero, taken before his time. 

The Gates themselves were designed to honour Astle in real detail, the arch featuring not just his dates, 1942-2002, but the number nine within a crown on each gate – after all, he was the King. The illustration panels feature Astle in the triumphant pose he struck having thumped in the goal that beat Everton to win the FA Cup in 1968, with a bit of poetic licence included to put him in the home kit instead. The panels featuring the club crest were changed after that was updated in 2006. 

Fittingly, it was Laraine and Jeff’s grandchildren, Matthew and Taylar who unveiled the gates back in 2003, leaving Jeff looking out over the Birmingham Road, his kingdom, in perpetuity. 

Astle is the King. Don’t ever forget it.